Narayan Murthy: The Story of the Legend

Narayan Murthy’s rise from the son of a middle-class school teacher to a billionaire is one of courage and hard work. From a young age, Murthy was diligent and hardworking. He had a knack for science. He was passionate about Mathematics and Physics and always had the thirst and the desire to gain more knowledge in these fields. He got his education from a government school and pursued his B.E degree from the University of Mysore and masters from IIT, Kanpur.

Career 

Narayana started his career as a chief system programmer at IIM Ahmedabad where he implemented the BASIC interpreter for ECIL (Electronics Corporation of India Limited). Later, he joined Patni Computer Systems, Pune. Before moving to Mumbai, he met his wife, Sudha, who too was an engineer. 

Infosys 

He started a company called Softronics, which failed after 1.5 years of its inception. However, instead of letting failure consume his dream of becoming an entrepreneur, he learned from his mistakes and moved forward. 

Murthy and six software professionals founded Infosys in 1981 with an initial capital injection of Rs 10,000, which was provided by his wife Sudha Murthy. Murthy served as the CEO of Infosys for 21 years from 1981 to 2002 and was succeeded by co-founder Nandan Nilekani. At Infosys, he articulated, designed, and implemented the Global Delivery Model for IT services outsourcing from India. He was chairman of the board from 2002 to 2006, after which he became Chairman of the board and Chief Mentor. After three decades with the company, he stepped down as chairman in 2011 taking the title chairman emeritus. He returned in 2013 to hand over management to a professional CEO in 2014. In 2017, he was in the middle of a controversy for raising concerns over alleged corporate governance lapses at Infosys, which the company denied. This led the CEO of the company to resign and Nandan Nilekani returned as non-executive chairman.

Awards 

The Asiaweek magazine counted him in the 50 topmost powerful men in the year 2000, he was honoured with the Padma Shree award by the President of India, the Wharton school awarded him their Dean Medal, University of Pennsylvania, he was also honoured with the title ‘Asia’s Businessman of the year’ by Fortune magazine in 2003, in 2008 he was honoured with the Padma Vibhushan, he is associated with important and prestigious organizations. He is the member of the Board of Directors of INSEAD, the Board of Oversees of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the Board of Members of School of Management at Asian Institute of Technology.

Narayan Murthy’s life started from humble beginnings but he made sure, through hard work and perseverance, that he would make a huge impact in India’s history. His is a story that we all must learn from.